Electrical cord storage

grsthegreat · Oct 31, 2022

ponytug said:
I do the climbing / mariner thing where you twist the coil in hand for every loop of the coil, so that there are no twists in the cord or rope.

I was told that the daisy chain method is storing cords was actually hard on the cord due to the tighter loops. I have no data and mentally filed it under the "might be true, might not be". Personally, I have never lost an extension cord due to a wire failure- cuts in the outer insulation, serial replacement of the ends, but never due to an internal wire break. YMMV...

All the best,

Peter

Well, i daisy chained mine for 30 years. Except for stollen ones…i still have them all. Most used daily wiring houses

MossRoad · Nov 1, 2022

John_Mc said:
I hate dealing with long extension cords or ropes that are coiled. The problem with coiling or "elbow wrapping" is that you put a twist in each wrap as you coil it. Since people seldom undo that twist when uncoiling, it tends to twist up and tangle as pull an end out of the coil.

I tried the "daisy chain" method but it was a bit time consuming, and left some of my cords kinked up.

I ended up adopting a technique from my rock climbing days known as "flaking" the rope. The finished product looks like a coil, but avoids putting repeated twists in a rope or cord. I do this on anything longer than 50' or so. I'd try to describe it, but I'm sure I'd botch the description. There are numerous YouTube and other descriptions you can find by googling "Flaking rope" or "flaking climbing rope". If I get a chance, I'll make a video of it.

(NOTE: there seem to be a couple of different meanings of "flaking a rope": one definition ends up looking almost like a coil of rope. The other involves just laying the rope on the ground in such a manner that it will not tangle as you pay it back out. I'm talking about the coil-like method.)

I've found that if you do the elbow deal but keep the hand that is bringing in the wire in an open circle, like the letter O, and don't grip the wire being pulled in but let it slide through the O it doesn't impart too much of a twist.

I've also found that the more of a hurry you are when starting to unwind the cord, the more likely you are to end in a tangled mess.

jjeff · Nov 16, 2022

Got this wonder winder as a novelty gift 5 yrs ago I like how well it worked I bought a few more I can store about 100' of 12-3 chord in part it's easy to pull out, put back in, never tangles and take the chord off if it's needed elsewhere. Imo it's not built to be used in higher production environments or a welding shop. I've also put a female plug ends on old broken retractable drop lights. 18-3 but will power a small router or sander no problem. I apologize if already mentioned but when I'm coiling chords free hand I pull an arms length with one hand and put a 1/4-1/2 turn in at as I coil.